In 1988, when CDC joined three other partners to launch the ambitious Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), the world was a much different and, measured by polio’s reach, dangerous place. Rebecca Martin, PhD, Director, CDC Center for Global Health Back then, polio existed in more than 125 countries and it paralyzed 350,000 children that year. Thanks to GPEI and the tireless work of its current partners – the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and CDC – by 2005 polio was eliminated in all but four countries– Pakistan, Nigeria, India, and Afghanistan. In 2011, India conquered poliovirus, leaving only three endemic countries.